How to Handle Culture Stress

Debbie Stephens • Apr 24, 2017

In the last 18 years, I have traveled to countries on nearly every continent. Every country I traveled to has taught me about culture and about myself.

Through my travels, I have experienced things completely foreign to my definition of normal.

I have bathed and washed my hair in a bucket, slept in a treehouse, eaten with monkeys, been roommates with scorpions, used two boards as a toilet, traveled through the mountains in the back of a pickup truck and eaten foods I can’t pronounce.

All of these experiences, while exciting, triggered culture stress in me, which can affect your mind, body and emotions.

If you travel abroad, you may have similar experiences of culture stress. But you don’t have to face them unprepared. From one traveler to another, here are my best tips for identifying culture stress and handling it well .

Culture Shock vs. Culture Stress

You have likely heard the term “culture shock” before. While connected to culture stress, culture shock is experienced differently.

Culture shock is defined as a sense of cultural disorientation when exposed to or immersed in a different society. It can also manifest itself when cultural expectations are unmet.

stages of culture shock

Culture shock generally moves through four different phases:

  • Honeymoon ( “Wow, this is great!” )
  • Frustration ( “What have I done?” )
  • Recovery ( “I think I can, I think I can…” )
  • Acceptance ( “I love these people. I don’t want to go home!” )

I’ve experienced this during my travels when “normal” activities were suddenly not normal to me anymore.

Culture stress is defined as the relearning of daily routines that are now unfamiliar and unknown, resulting in making new decisions constantly.

culture stress

Culture stress happened to me as the days went on, and my new daily routine started to weigh on me. I was functioning but on a very limited level. I felt anxious and, at times, scared of some of my circumstances. Culture stress can bring on new levels of fatigue and discouragement.

Other signs you are experiencing culture stress are negativity, frustration, depression, homesickness, anger and even physical illness.

How to Handle Culture Stress

It is normal to experience culture stress, but you don’t want to stay there forever. Here are some ways to process your new way of life, attitudes and cultural norms:

Remember, God is with you. The stresses of entering another culture can lead us to overemphasize our circumstances and deemphasize the ministry God has for us there. Staying connected to God through His word helps me know He doesn’t need me but is allowing me to join Him in the work He is doing.

Talk to someone. Tell your supervisor or teammate how you are feeling. Speaking my feelings out loud seems to bring them into perspective. They aren’t quite so ominous anymore. Ask your co-workers to pray with you. Ask the Lord to give you a love for the people you are serving and strength to overcome the struggles you are experiencing.

Focus on similarities. I find people are the same all over the world. We may have different customs, wear different clothes and eat different foods, but we all experience love, joy, fear and loss. During a particularly difficult trip, God allowed me to connect with a woman in spite of our differing cultures. Praying with her in a time of deep sadness, I saw how God comforted her, and it made me thankful that I was there to experience this with her.

Journal your feelings. When experiencing culture stress, journaling my feelings helps me release some of the negative energy I’m feeling. I also always end with praise for the Lord, as I know He is with me in my struggles. “ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress my God, in whom I trust'” (Psalm 91:1-2).

Take care of yourself. I have introverted tendencies, meaning I gain energy by spending time by myself. When I feel overwhelmed by crowds of people and need a break, I try to take some time to regroup, even if it is just for a few minutes. When you find yourself becoming anxious or fatigued, find a healthy distraction to refresh yourself. However, be careful not to isolate yourself. “ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Push yourself to make local friends. Get out in your community. Set a goal to meet someone new or learn something about your host culture every day. Find a local friend, a person of peace, to help you learn the language and local customs (Luke 10:5-6). As a mobilizer with Equipped to Go , I often see short-term missionaries give into the temptation to constantly connect with family and friends on social media. They find themselves between two worlds and often find it easier to cling to the world they know over the new one to be discovered. Making local friends can help you feel more connected to your host culture.

The strangeness you feel will slowly become more natural to you as you climb out of the valley of culture stress and your surroundings become your new normal.

I wouldn’t trade my experiences abroad for anything, even though they felt like struggles at the time. I have grown immensely through each one, and they all mark a special time with my Savior that still fuels my faith today. If you find yourself tired and worn out from living in another culture, hang in there, my friend. He is Faithful!

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

2 Corinthians 2:14-15

Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
Share by: